Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

I saw Vengeance Road on a list of books with kick ass female protagonists and that was enough for me.  When I went looking for it, though, the cover seemed kind of familiar.  I believe I picked it up once before and didn't finish it.  This time, I got it in audio book form.  I think this saved it for me.  The story is told in a "western" voice, that is to say using were instead of was and other grammatical idiosyncrasies.  I think if I were reading this in print form, that would have been too much of a turn off for me and is probably what happened the first time.  Listening, though, made that easier for me and I'm glad, because I ended up really liking this book.

Vengeance Road is the story of 18 year old Kate living in the Arizona Territory in 1877.  When her father, who is her entire family, is hung by a gang, she sets off to find vengeance.  Along the way, she meets the Colton brothers who become traveling companions and a bit more.  Kate is unapologetic in her hunt for vengeance.  She does, on occasion, consider what her moral status is, but mostly she is completely bad ass and focused.  There is a bit of romance, but this is mostly Kate's story and her story is all about killing the Rose Gang and, particularly, its leader.  This is a true western with an excellent female lead.  There is plenty of violence and death.

I really liked Kate.  I enjoyed her story very much.  I was certainly cheering her on.  There was a time that I think we (the readers) were probably supposed to cry and I didn't.  I'm telling you this to say that I wasn't perfectly sucked in by the story, but I did still like it overall.  I was happy to turn it on and listen even though it was sort of a pain because I got this book through Hoopla (through my library account) and, for some reason, could only stream it.  That was annoying, as it would turn off whenever I went out of wifi.  I could get it through my data, but anytime I went by wifi, it'd get messed up again.  Eventually, I turned off my wifi and just steamed through cell phone data, but then I'd forget to turn wifi back on and was burning through my data.  In the end, I started a different audio book to listen to when I was going to be out and just listened to Vengeance Road at home with wifi on and consistent.  Because I liked the book so much, I carried on through all this, so that says something. 

If you like unabashed kick ass female leads, give Vengeance Road a go.  It's worth it.